It is reported that on Tuesday, May 12 2009, at 2 pm, the Bulgarian state-owned gas distributor Bulgargaz will cut the gas supplies to the insolvent Bulgarian steel mill Kremikovtzi, as there is no investors' interest in the enterprise and the negotiations with Brazilian company CSN have stalled.
Accordingly, the gas cut will be combined with a total energy shutdown at the Kremikovtzi, which may result in the mill closing its main production facilities.
Meanwhile, the workers at Kremikovtzi continue mass protests in Sofia, demanding to have at least their wages paid. They haven't received money since November 2008 and have protesting every working day of the last month. So far 1,200 workers at the mill have been made redundant or made to retire in the recent months.
On Tuesday, the workers will protest against the cut of gas supply to the mill. According to the syndicate leader Lyudmil Pavlov, the workers will not get into the steel mill and they will not be the one to stop the equipment.
However, according to some local reports, it is not out of the table that the cutting of gas supplies will once again be postponed. Workers at Kremikovtzi have longtime been supporters of the now ruling socialist party and it is not unlikely that the state will try to have the company running at least until the parliamentary elections this summer.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, Bulgargaz originally planned to cut off gas supplies to Kremikovtzi on April 1, 2009; however, it then decided to delay the cutoff, giving the government time to reach a tolling deal with the CSN for the purchase of coke from Kremikovtzi.